A funny thing happen in the UK on the way to soaking the rich. The wicked rich or at least a significant number of them either left the country or ceased to spend their time earning money. These rich scalawags didn’t stick around for their soaking. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs service is now reporting that the number of taxpayers reporting earnings over 1 Million Pounds Sterling fell from 16,000 to 6,000 from the 2009 tax year to the 2010 tax year. That incidentally was the year that the income tax rate was increased from 40% to 50% courtesy of the government of the ex Prime Minister Gordon Brown shoved through Parliament during its last days in office.
The Brown government has estimated that the revenue increase from this tax increase would amount to 2.5 Billion Pounds. What they got instead in a single year was a loss of 6.9 Billion Pounds when compared to the previous years take from the rich. So what happened to the Millionaires? Government officials are hastily blaming it on the economy having such a negative effect that 62.5% of the taxpayers who reported earnings of over 1 Million Pounds (about $1.6 Million) simply did not earn that much during the next year. The British press has picked up on the possibility that 10,000 Millionaires just packed up and left the country and has been tracking them to their new whereabouts in basically anywhere but the UK.
Prime Minister David Cameron seeing the error of the previous administration hastily lowered the rate from 50% back to the 40% that it was before the exodus of Millionaires. As easy as it may seem for politicians to lay the entire financial burden of a welfare state on a small minority of people the UK at least for now seems to have learned that lesson the hard way. This lesson is one that the United States and President Obama should remember as the “soak the rich” mantra of the 2012 campaign finds its way into consideration by lawmaking bodies. It took Britain only two years to reverse the “straw that broke the camels back” tax increase that drove high wage earners from their shores in droves. The next few months may determine if the United States will stay bullish on soaking the rich or see that campaign slogan for the destructive and divisive dance with fiscal insanity that it may become.
I don’t call it soaking the rich… I call it paiding there fair share. Whats wrong with going back to the tax rate they paid in the 90’s under President Clinton? Were they leaving the U.S. in droves? NO!!! They were still enjoying there riches.. What happen to “the majority rules”? Over 60% of Americans say raise the tax rate for the richest 2%. But Boehner and his party thinks they should cut programs and raise taxes on the other 98% instead of the 2%. Whether you want to admit it or not, the majority of Americans voted to re-elect Obama, even with him campaigning about raising the tax on the 2% of the wealthiest American. The Republican need to take their blinders off and respect the decission of the people.
Things were good in the 90’s when Clinton was President. In case you have not noticed the economy is a wreck now after Bush and Obama teamed up to destroy it with debt and waste. This is no time to kill the geese that lay the golden eggs and no matter what the majority thinks, if the rich go on strike or leave the sheeple will starve and attack each other. Surely you recognize this is not Mr. Clinton’s economy that we are living in nowadays. By the way, majority does not rule in the United States. Majority may elect but the law rules.
We are in a financial bind you moron. If we are to survive as a nation financially everyone has to have skin in the game. Raise everyone’s taxes by an equal percentage and stop the damn spending so we can have a balanced budget. Anything less is political cowardice in action.
Paiding their fair share??? You are illiterate too. The top 2% already pay more than the bottom 50% combined. What is fair about that. Go to Turoni’s and order a pizza and see what the fair price is. You guessed it Einstein everyone who wants to buy a pizza pays the price on the menu. There is no real business that hopes to survive that would charge a person more because they make more. That would be absolutely stupid. Even the 50% would understand that a $15 pizza is a $15 pizza no matter who you are and what you make. Only the government and moochers like you think it is fair for rich people to be considered pikers for paying way more than nearly everyone else you included.
Majority doesn’t rule in America. America is a Republic. We decide things here in America based on law.
“What have you given us Mr. Franklin? A republic mam as long as you can keep it.”
If you think America is a democracy, you might as well not be surprised when it turns into an oligarchy then a dictatorship.
Another thing, the majority that pay the taxes should be the deciding factor. Those that wish to continually suck off the government tit without contributing something useful besides being a waste of space, should have no voice recognized. You know why? THEY DIDN’T BUILD THAT.
In a new world economy where electronic transfer of wealth can take place in minutes instead of years, it would do our politicians well to pay attention to this event…. wealth is no longer a fixed static asset that just sits around waiting for some government entity to eat it up…. the revolutions of the eighteenth century were fought by those who had created transportable wealth in rebellion against the landowner’s antiquated medieval power structures. It took the Romans 200 years to strip northern Europe and England of their wealth (Gold and Silver….). Apparently it took one English politician and his party less than a year to accomplish the same feat….. just hope Obama and his gang can read both ancient and modern history.
Yet, try getting wealth out of the US legally… Like hellhounds they’ll track you down. Our country is the worst on the planet in terms of allowing import and export of wealth. We tax it when it leaves and we tax it when it comes in.
Our leaders would be careful to remember a Revolution was fought in this country once upon a time because of the heavy burdens of taxation.
It wasn’t heavy burdens of taxation it was taxation without representation.
Yet, interestingly they didn’t choose to set up an unapportioned federal income tax. Wonder why that was…
If you mad enough and can calculate the differential gain for moving to another economy… you do it legally pay the taxes and go…. last I read American based companies had in excess of a trillion $ off shore working in more favorable economies… too expensive to bring it home….
We have a chance to perform a bloodless revolution quite regularly. It’s called voting. Interestingly, we can’t even get a majority of our citizens to drive to any of dozens of easily accessed polling places, many of which are open weeks prior to the actual election. When we do bother to get off the sofa and vote, we regularly and overwhelmingly return incumbents to office.
Minuteman fantasies aside, ain’t no revolution gonna happen here, friend.
As to this article, it sounds like it isn’t actually known whether or not the millionaires took their pounds and fled the high taxation or whether the downswing in the economy has resulted in fewer millionaires. If you’re attempting (as I think you are) to imply the former as a cautionary tale to our legislators, it might behoove you to find out if the former is actually correct or just conjecture.
Well if I don’t loose my cool for a minute or two, yes I feel all of us (Americans) need to listen and take part in what is happening to our “country”. Quit listening and watching ABC, NBC and CBS NEWS CASTERS. There are times they are in bed with the politicians, leaning so far to the “left”, they almost fall out of bed! Untill we can get all people of this country thinking and more concerned about what is taking place in this country, we’ll all be headed down a “Dead End” road with no room to turn around. Some of us need to get off the wagon and push it for the first time in our lives. THIS IS AMERICA! The land of milk and honey, but you got to work for it! Try it, it will be better then the “blame” game!
As I recall, John Lennon packed it in and moved to NY, NY. Kinda reminds me of the ten beer drinking fellows..four did not pay for their beer, two paid a little, two paid moderately, Two paid more than enough. and one paid a LOT. One day, the tavern owner said, “you fellows have been so loyal to my establishment, that I will reduce the price for beer, 20%, of course, the four that did not pay squat , they received no benefit, the next two, a small bit, the next two modest reduction, the next two, very noticeable, and finally, the one that paid a LOT received 62% of the benefit. So, the grand majority said to themselves, let’s beat the tar out of the individual that received the greatest benefit. As such, he stagger out of the tavern and never to returned the next day. Well the ones left, said to themselves the next day when returning to the tavern, who will be paying for the beer? Like Margaret Thacker once said “Socialism is sure great until you run out of other people’s money” The job creators do NOT live in a vacuum. They will not and have not sat back idle and allowed themselves to be ravaged. When those Brit millionaires left, the beer stopped flowing, evidently!
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